Audacious

Okay, I hate to be that person who gives a book a low rating because of a little thing that ruined it for me. But it wouldn't be an honest review otherwise, so let's do this.

Audacious, you had me. The main character -- who is equal parts artistic, techie, and feminist. The plot, which deals with body shaming, personal autonomy, art and artistic expression, racism, religious beliefs, and more. The writing, which is gorgeous and poetic. I don't normally go for novels in verse, but this one pulled me right in.

And then I got to Ella's art project, which centres around a vagina as a determining factor of who is and isn't a woman, that thing that we all apparently have in common.

That doesn't sit right with me, for a couple of reasons. For show more starters, there's the existence of transgender people. You absolutely do not need a vagina to be a woman, and thinking that way excludes a lot of awesome ladies. Secondly, even from a cisgender perspective, I mean, I prefer not to be reduced to what's between my legs. I'm more than a body part.

And yeah, yeah, the main character is in high school. I don't expect her to have some nuanced understanding of gender -- I sure as hell didn't back then. But having a pivotal part of the plot be about anatomy being what all women have in common? That felt unnecessary.

So, much as it pains me to say because I love the rest of it, this really wasn't the book for me. show less

Some of Raphaelle’s behaviour is simply for the sake of being contrary, true. She is at that age. But there is a political side to the decisions that she makes.

Her actions are rooted in questions about identity, specifically her feminine identity and what roles she (and other girls and women) inhabit in society. And, in that process, she reinvents herself as Ella.

In many ways, her audacity is not just an act of self-insistence but an open declaration of war on convention.

In her own small corner of the world, Raphaelle acts as the revolutionary.

Gabrielle Prendergast’s language is unsentimental, and the everyday details in the verses balance the heavily emotional content. (The novel-in-verse does seem particularly appropriate for show more this age group.)

Sometimes the mood is relayed as much by the shape and layout of the poems as by the words themselves.

One of the most satisfying elements of the work, however, is the resolution. Or, more accurately, the lack of tidy resolution.

Raphaelle/Ella does not age substantially in the course of the novel and despite all the learning experiences she has in the story, by the end of it, she has even more questions than she had at the beginnings (or, at least, readers are more consciously aware of all the questions with which she is grappling).

So it feels realistic to have the questioning process continue at the end of Audacious, even while the heroine is still moving forward.

More talk of this novel here, at Buried.In.Print. show less

"I'm wary of them
Their glossy lips hide sharp fangs
And I have been bitten
One too many times."

After a spat of problems at previous schools, Raphaelle decides to remake herself at her new school as Ella, a good girl who fits in and doesn't say or do the wrong things. But her plan is short lived. The popular girls are quick to mock her and she finds that her audacious self soon shines through. She makes friends with Samir, a Muslim boy in her art class, she is drawn to. Each of them is pulled aside to make an art piece for the student art competition, and each comes up with a society challenging piece of art that evoke their frustration with their lives and the world, drawing a considerable amount of controversy and problems.

This novel is show more written in free verse and in some cases this means prose broken up into lines and stanzas. However, Prendergast does a good job of making each poem feel whole within itself and presents some good poetry in the mix of telling the story.

“The weight of that name
Is sometimes a mountain
With a cave of secrets

And sometimes a feather
Floating on a puff of air”

I didn't expect to like this story as much as I did. I didn't expect events to take the turns they did or the characters to be as fully fleshed out as they were. I have to say it was a very pleasant surprise. show less

This story, told through free-verse poetry, was incredibly engaging from beginning to end. This was a finish-it-in-one-day-read! Ella, the first person narrator, is feisty, care-free, creative-artistic, opinionated, and witty. There were multiple times where her point-of-view made me laugh out loud. Sometimes I was even shocked with how blunt and brash she could be. Ironically though, someone this confident still faces self-worth issues, teen drama, and times of peer confusion reminding the reader that no one is super-human; we all struggle. Many important "thinker" topics are covered in this story with wonderful supporting characters that make up a captivating world (bulimia, freedom of expression, cross-culture relationships, and show more religion). The free-verse allows for even non-fans of poetry to enjoy the story, because it simply doesn't feel like you're reading poems. The best news? There's a sequel soon to come out titled Capricious. Ella is a character you'll instantly like and will find hard to forget. show less

I've never actually gone out on a mission to read a novel in verse- they just seem to find me. When I read The Language Inside by Holly Thompson, I had no idea it was in verse but ended up loving the story. I'm not at all surprised that the same exact things happened with Audacious...

Raphaelle has never let herself fit into what others want. Instead, she is who she wants to be, especially when it comes to her art. But when it comes time for Raphaelle and her family to move, she reinvents herself as Ella, the girl who isn't going to be the "bad girl" anymore. Knowing Ella, though, she can't ever do the right thing. Ella can't resist Samir, the muslim boy from her art class, and she can't resist testing the limits with her art. She might show more have taken things too far this time, though, and finds herself having to face a harsh reality in an even harsher world.

Boy is Ella (Raphaelle? Not sure what to call her at this point...) audacious. Bold. Daring. She's the kind of person I kind of wish I could be sometimes. She's not afraid to be who she wants and do what she wants, which is really inspiring. She falls in love with a muslim boy? Well, love's love. Sadly, though, the world is such a harsh critic and Ella soon finds it's not always the right thing, or the easy thing, to live the life she's happiest with.

Ella goes through so much in this novel that I almost forgot I was reading a novel in verse. There's things about race, religion, disabilities, marriage, eating disorders, and on and on and on. Yet it's told in such a beautiful way. Seriously, if I could write like Gabrielle Prendergast wrote, I'd be writing books left and right. Everything she wrote and how she created her characters were so perfect and I loved every second of the book.

All of the characters were all different, yet fit perfectly into the story. You've got Ella's asthmatic sister who always seems to fit in, Samir the boyfriend, Samir's family, Ella's parents, the two girls from school, the art teacher, and so many more that the story gives you glimpses of. You get so much out of this book and I love how it's not all about one single character, but the lives of all of the characters in her world as well.

Overall, this book was great. The verse was beautiful and the story was touching. There are serious issues that are dealt with, but there are also some lighter moments of simple teenage life. Ella is a great character who is unique and definitely fun to read about. If you're a fan of verse, and even if you're hesitant to try out that genre, I'd recommend checking out Audacious. And then check out the next book Capricious when it comes out. I know I will! show less

I received this book through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program; it arrived on 14 August 2013.

Disclaimers: I'm definitely older than the YA target audience, and don't have much knowledge of or experience with verse novels.

I was quite impressed by AUDACIOUS. The poems work as individual pieces, in arcs, and as a complete narrative. It's easy to feel the changes in mood and tone, and it feels like a very natural way for a narrative to unfold—more genuine, perhaps, than prose, since we don’t tend to think in tidy sentences. Raphaelle/Ella was an intriguing protagonist, and I think poetry suited her narrative voice. One thing I really appreciated about AUDACIOUS is that the teens felt like teens—not as airheaded as some adults show more make them out to be, nor as amazingly mature as they are idealized in some YA.

Quibbles:
The bullying incident that in part prompted the family's move is revealed a bit too late to have its full effect. In fact, the reveal feels a bit awkward and out of step with the narrative.

On the whole, though, I really enjoyed AUDACIOUS and hope to read the sequel, CAPRICIOUS, when it comes out. show less

I love novels in verse and Audacious stands out in its own right because of Raphaelle, our wonderful leading lady. Every character in this book has his or her own flaws, including Raphaelle. She wants to fit in. She wants to get over the past. She wants to ignore everything that's wrong with her family so that she can focus on fixing herself instead. Sometimes she makes the wrong choices. Sometimes things turn out horribly for her. But she's real, and fun to read, and I couldn't wait to read on and see what else was going to happen with her.

I do think that this book tried to take on a lot of issues all at once and maybe it got stretched a little too thin in places. That's about the only complaint that I can think of because, otherwise, show more it was so beautifully written and captivating that I didn't care much about how long it dwelt on a particular plot point or feature.

I read the summary a while ago, just before I got the book, and didn't reread it beforehand. That gave Ella's story a little more suspense because I genuinely couldn't tell where the plot might have been going. Ella is trying to figure herself out and I liked how I as the reader was also trying to do the same thing, looking through her thoughts and actions and trying to determine what had happened to her in the past and why she acts and thinks rebelliously when at the same time some part of her just wants to blend into the background and be normal. I feel like everybody has these two warring sides within them, though in Ella it's more obvious a problem than it is for most people.

There were so many great characters in this book-Samir and his sister, Ella's art teacher and her disabled daughter, Ella's entire family-that I can still remember clearly and who all had an impact on Ella's way of thinking. She changed because of or in spite of people and I think I learned something along with her.

This is a quick read even though it contains several issues within it. I'd recommend it to anyone, including people who love verse novels or who are looking for a quick, insightful read. show less